Police tell Tamworth Select Board budget adds patrol time, social worker funding and potential software upgrade
Loading...
Summary
Police Chief reported proposed budget increases for a half-year patrol position, a full-time social worker, wage adjustments, an anticipated software migration cost from Central Square and equipment/laptop replacements; board discussed using an expendable trust fund to smooth salary timing.
Chief Dana Littlefield (police budget presenter) outlined a proposed increase in personnel costs for the Police Department, saying the full-time line includes funding for the chiefpositionand a patrol position budgeted for six months and the social-worker position funded as a full-time line.
Littlefield said the department has been underbudgeting staffing for several years because of difficulty hiring; benefits and retirement costs are substantial (retirement estimated at about a 31% gross rate). He said the department is optimistic about candidates for the social-worker role, reporting multiple strong applicants and two candidates who accepted and later withdrew for personal reasons; a continued hiring process is underway.
The chief said an anticipated software change from the departments current records vendor, Central Square, could increase the towns annual software fee significantly if the county and other agencies migrate to Central Squares new cloud-based platform next year; an initial vendor quote was an estimated $15,000 annual fee plus a $5,000 setup, compared with about $3,000 currently. Littlefield said the final number may fall if the countys procurement decisions change the share of costs.
Littlefield also asked to replace two laptops after Lakes Region IT advised current machines run Windows 10 and cannot be upgraded securely to Windows 11; the department proposes two laptops (~$1,200 each) rather than higher-priced 'Toughbook' rigs. He recommended inventorying town-wide IT needs to plan a CIP for future replacements.
Board members and the chief discussed funding timing for new positions. Becky (from Zoom) asked about the expendable trust fund; Littlefield said the board had budgeted half a year's salary in the expendable trust and half in the operating budget in prior practice and suggested the board could place a whole year's salary into the trust to avoid annual reappropriation; legal language for a warrant article would be required.
Littlefield described the police social-worker job as a community liaison who can connect people in crisis to services and reduce repeat calls for service; he said the social-worker position could support participation in a county-level "mental health court" pilot to provide alternatives to arrest and better continuity of care.
No final vote on the police budget or the Central Square upgrade was taken at the meeting; the board asked for additional detail and for the department to continue recruiting.
